Sea Levels Rising Faster Than Previous Estimates Says the World's Leading Climate Scientist

Climate change is real. Tell the government. Tell everybody.

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We're fucked. The entire planet is fucked...in about 50 years. Former NASA lead climate scientist, James Hansen and 16 expert co-authors have conducted a new study on sea levels. Said study concludes that the Earth's sea levels will rise around 10 feet in about 50 years. You want to know how real James Hansen is? He retired from his job at NASA after 46 years because, "As a government employee, you can’t testify against the government.” Yeah, he's serious about this climate change business, and, at 74, he doesn't have much time left.

So what's happening? The cooler freshwater from the glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland is forcing warm, salt water under their ice sheets. This is causing them to melt 10 times faster than previously estimated. Hansen, who's been right a lot, told reporters the study is, “substantially more persuasive than anything previously published.” The draft of the report sent to journalists yesterday ended with this dire paragraph:

"We conclude that continued high emissions will make multi-meter sea level rise practically unavoidable and likely to occur this century. Social disruption and economic consequences of such large sea level rise could be devastating. It is not difficult to imagine that conflicts arising from forced migrations and economic collapse might make the planet ungovernable, threatening the fabric of civilization." 

The study will appear in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussion some time this week. The site is an open-access journal by the European Geosciences Union that allows fellow scientists to comment on the study and for the authors to respond. This way the peer review process can be done in a public forum.

Recycle everything, especially cars, and walk everywhere. Also, don't use oil or gas. We might not be able to fix this. Our kids and their kids are fucked, and it's our fault.

[via Slate]

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